Appearing at Church of the Redeemer | 12:10 pm – 1:00 pm
In conversation with Dahlma Llanos-Figueroa, moderated by Cherise Fisher.
About the author
New York Times bestselling author Marie Benedict views herself as an archaeologist of sorts, telling the untold stories of women. Her books include The Other Einstein, Carnegie’s Maid, The Only Woman in the Room, Lady Clementine, and The Mystery of Mrs. Christie. Benedict is a lawyer with more than 10 years’ experience as a litigator at two premier law firms and for Fortune 500 companies. She is a magna cum laude graduate of Boston College with a focus on history and art history and a cum laude graduate of the Boston University School of Law. Benedict lives in Pittsburgh, PA with her family.
MFOB featured book: Her Hidden Genius
She changed the world with her discovery. Three men took the credit. Marie Benedict’s powerful new novel, Her Hidden Genius, shines a light on a woman who sacrificed her life to discover the nature of our very DNA. Her world-changing contributions were hidden by the men around her, but her relentless drive advanced our understanding of humankind.
Rosalind Franklin has always been an outsider—brilliant, but different. Whether working at the laboratory she adored in Paris or toiling at a university in London, she feels closest to science, those unchanging laws of physics and chemistry that guide her experiments. When she is assigned to work on DNA, she believes she can unearth its secrets. Rosalind knows if she just takes one more X-ray picture—one more after thousands—she can unlock the building blocks of life. Never again will she have to listen to her colleagues complain about her, especially Maurice Wilkins who would rather conspire about genetics with James Watson and Francis Crick than work alongside her. Then it finally happens—the double helix structure of DNA reveals itself to her with perfect clarity. But what unfolds next, Rosalind could have never predicted.